Fed-up council staff could strike over “draconian” management plans to slash salaries and restructure jobs.

West Dunbartonshire’s Unison branch have launched a consultative ballot after members expressed fury at a move to centralise administration departments that could see some low-paid staff lose 20 per cent of their wages.

Unison says a corporate administration service would bring together virtually all admin staff in the local authority into one team on generic job descriptions.

The union say the cut – billed by the council as a ‘management adjustment’ in a bid to slash £300,000 from the coffers – would particularly hit low-paid women.

It is hoped the ballot will give a clear indication of the strength of feeling of members and lead the council to rethink and remove the pay cuts.

Val Jennings, Unison branch convener, said: “Our members at mass meetings expressed such anger at the handling of the central admin service and the cuts to wages that they indicated they wanted to strike.

“We’ve raised this with management and continue to meet them. We’d have to acknowledge that steps have been taken to improve communication but they are still sticking to the £5000 cuts.

“It is unacceptable that when we see the number of staff earning over £50,000 a year increase from 107 to 116 in a year, the council are asking low-paid, predominantly female staff to swallow a £5000 cut.

“The whole branch are behind our admin workers and are well aware that there are similar huge cuts to wages facing care workers who are again mainly women.”

The branch say the move to a centralised team has left members feeling their skills and experience are devalued and created alienation at work.

They say there are many complex and distinct tasks carried out by admin staff.

The council have expressed their “disappointment” at the union move and said a limited number of staff are affected. A spokeswoman said officers had been engaging with trade unions on the project since April 2015, with talks continuing.

The newly formed West Dunbartonshire Community Party (WDCP) have thrown their weight behind the angry staff.

Councillor Jim Bollan, a member of the party, said: “WDCP fully support Unison and their members in taking action against the £100 per week cut in wages being imposed by the part-time Labour councillors on many of their members.

“This type of back-door attack on the living standards of workers is completely unacceptable.

“These deep cuts are being imposed on care staff, libraries and other sections with impunity.

"WDCP warned delegating more powers to officers to impose these cuts while giving staff more duties would be a disaster and staff morale would plummet, as is happening across many of our services.

“These draconian cuts need to be reversed immediately.”

Val said that the branch would be contacting councillors and calling on them to “start exercising political leadership”.

“You can’t claim to be part of an anti-austerity party if you will stand by and let low-paid women receive an over 20 per cent cut in wages,” said Val.

Responding to the move, a council spokeswoman said: “We’re disappointed that Unison have taken the decision to ballot members, particularly given that we are in the process of putting in place actions to mitigate any impact.

“Of the 158 employees originally involved in this review, 92 per cent are unaffected, and in addition six new promoted posts have been created.

“It’s also important to highlight that there will be no job losses and any staff who are impacted will have their salary preserved for over two years and have the opportunity to apply for promoted posts during that period.

“We value our staff and the aim of the review is to ensure the service is sustainable going forward.

“We remain committed to continuing our discussions with trade unions to further minimise any impact on the workforce.”